Bottle capper



N01, 22, 1932. E, MANNiNG ET AL 1,883,279

' BOTTLE CAPPER Filed Nov. 23, 9 1 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Zinnenton:

Edward Manning ag f? Mani? y if I attorney NOV. 22, 1932. E, MANMNG ET AL I 1,888,279

BOTTLE CAPPER Filed Nov. 23, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventors rzz'ny jfl- Mannz'n g f l (Ittornegf Patented Nov. 22, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDWARD MANNING AND ROY A. MANNING, OF RUTLAND, VERMONT, ASSIGNORS T0 MANNING MAN UFAOTURINGCOMPANY, INCORPORATED, 013 RUTLAND, VERMONT BOTTLE GAPPER Application filed November 23, 1931. Serial No. 576,907.

The invention forming the subject matter of this application relates particularly to manually operable devices'for applying caps I to standard type milk bottles.

The main object of the invention is to provide a device adapted to receive a cylindrical carton of cardboard caps, such as are in common use in automatic bottle capping machines, and to feed these caps one at a time from the bottom of said carton into the path of a gravity operated plunger operating over a bottle neck.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device of this character which consists of few parts very easy to assemble and take apart and capableof being manufactured at low cost.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent as the detailed description thereof proceeds. V

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the manually operated'capper embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal transverse section of the capper taken on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary vertical section, to an enlarged scale, of the cap feeding parts of the mechanism; i

Figure 4 is a horizontal section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a horizontal section taken on the line 55 ofFigure 3;

Figure 6 is a vertical transverse section taken on the line 66 of Figure 5; and

Figure 7 is a perspective view of a slide for pushing the bottom' cap of a stack from the lower end of a carton of caps into feeding position over a bottleneck.

As shown in the'drawings, the capper comprises a main casting formed as a tube 1 having a cylindrical bore 2 adapted to receive snugly a carton 3 having a stack 4 of the usual cardboard capping disks arranged therein. The lower end of this tube is provided with diametrically opposite longitudinal slots '5 and 6 wide enough to permit entrance of the fingersof the operator into the bore for the purpose of manipulating the carton either in removing from or inserting the ciprocably against the bottom end of the 5 tube 1.

The shoulders and 8 are deep enough to permit the stack of disks to slide vertically down the carton 3 and rest on the detachable bottom 10 in the path of movement of the feeder 9 with a few disks of the stack clear of the bottom end of the carton. This con struction is designed to prevent the edge of the feeder 9 from striking the bottom end of the carton, and to enable the feeder to slide the bottom disk from under the stack into feeding position for the bottle capping operation.

As shown particularly in Figure 6, the shoulders 7 and 8 have their arcuate edges terminating at upper ends of the downwardly sloping walls, which are sloped so as to center the caps properly with respect to the arcuate cut out portion 11 of the feeder plate 9.

The plate 9 is thick enough to ensure proper feeding contact between the arcuate edge 11 and the bottom cap of the stack 4:; but, is of course, slightly less in thickness than the caps in order to ensure that only one cap at a time is pushed from the stack.

The plate 9 has the tongues 12 and 13 suitably secured to the lower side thereof, to slide in the grooves 14 and 15, respectively, formed in the bottom 10'.

As shown clearly in Figures 1 and 5 of the drawings, the sides of the tube 1' are planed or cast parallel to each other to form guiding plane surfaces for slidably receiving the slotted plates 16 and 17 which are used to reciprocate the feeder plate 9. Flanges 18 and 19 project forwardly from the lower end of the tube 1 to form lugs 20 and 21' provided with internally screw-threaded apertures adapted to receive the threads of machine screws 22 and 23 for securing the forward end of bottom 10 to the flanges 18 and 19.

The lower end of the tube 1 is also provided with laterally extending lugs 24 and 25 having screw-threaded apertures to re ceive machine screws 26 and 27 for connecting the rear end of the bottom 10 to the lower end of the tube, the bottom 10 being provided with lugs 28, 29, 30 and 30 which register with the lugs 20, 21, 24 and 25 when the bottom 10 is secured in proper position on the lower end of tube 1.

The upper ends of the parallel plane faces of the lower part of tube 1 terminate in flanges 31, 32, 33 and 34. The flanges 31 and 33 have parallel apertured lugs 35 and 36 extending laterally therefrom to form supports for a rod 37 spaced from and parallel to the plane wall of the tube 1 to confine the plate 16 slidably against said wall. The upper end of the plate 16 has stop lugs 38 and 39 projecting inwardly to contact with the flanges 31 and 33 to limit the downward movement of the plate.

The flanges 32 and 34 (see Figure 2) are provided with lugs similar to lugs 35 and 36, to support the rod 40 in parallel spaced relationship to the opposite plane face at the lower end of tube 1. The upper end of plate 17 is provided with inwardly directed stop lugs to en age the flanges 32 and 34 for the purpose 0 limiting the downward movement of the plate 17. Only one of these stop lugs on plate 17 is shown in Figure 1 and this lug is designated by the numeral 41.

The plates 16 and 17 are paired on opposite sides of the lower end of the tube 1, and are provided with slots 42 and 43, respectively, each of which is inclined, as shown in Figure 1 of the drawings. The slot 42 slidably receives and guides a pin 44 extending laterally from the tongue 12 secured to the under side of the feeder plate 9. The slot 43 similarly receives the pin 45 projecting laterally from the tongue 13, also secured on the under side of the feeder plate 9 and at the edge opposite to that to which the tongue 12 is secured. The lower ends of the plates 16 and 17 have a capping cylinder 46 suitably secured thereto. This capping cylinder 46 is centrally apertured to receive caps from the stack 4 and position them properly to be forced into the seat 47 of a bottle neck 48 by means of plunger mechanism depending from the bottom 10.

The cylinder 46 has its lower inside face curved to form a seat 49 corresponding in shape to the contour of the beaded mouth of the bottle neck 48. The upper part of the bore of the cylinder 46 is beveled outwardly and upwardly to form a positioning seat for a. cap immediately prior to its being forced onto seat 47 of the bottle neck. The forward side 65 of the cylinder 46 is provided with an upwardly extending guide lug 50 which is spaced so as to engage the edge of a cap and guide it in its downward movements onto the conical seat of the cylinder 46 and under a rod 51 which extends diametrically across the cylinder 46 for the purpose of preventing caps from turning over in the cylinder before they are moved to the seat 47 of the bottle neck.

The plunger 53 for moving a cap 52 from its position in the cylinder 46 onto its seat 47 is formed integral with the lower face of the bottom 10. This plunger 53 is slightly less in diameter than the diameter of the narrowest part of the bore in the cylinder 46 so that the plunger might pass through this narrow part and force the cap 52 properly down on its seat 47 of the bottle neck. The cylindrical part of the plunger 53 is slotted transversely to permit its movements past the rod 51.

The forward part of the bottom 10 is provided with a stop shoulder 54 against which the caps of the stack 4 are pushed, one at a time, by the reciprocations of the feeder plate 9. This shoulder 54 forms with the upper forward edge of the bottom 10 a seat 55 for the forward edge of any cap stopped by the shoulder 54. The bottom 10 slopes inwardly and downwardly from the seat 55 to form a guide wall 55 for a cap 52 as it moves downwardly toward a bottle neck. The forward face of the plunger 53 is provided with an arcuate downwardly sloping surface 56 which co-operates with the sloping guide wall on the bottom 10 in positioning a cap being fed to the cylinder 46.

In operation: Assuming now that the tube 1 has a carton of caps arranged therein and with the caps positioned, as shown in Figure 2. In this position, the tube 1 is held raised by the hand of the operator so that the slotted plates 16 and 17 are suspended by the lugs at their top from the flanges 31, 32, 33 and 34 and so that the cylinder 46 secured to the bottom of these slotted plates is resting on the top of the bottom 48 to be capped. If now, the tube 1 be allowed to fall by gravity toward the bottle supported cylinder 46, it is obvious that the slots 42 and 43, by their engagement with the pins 44 and 45, will cause the feeder plate 9 to move the bottom cap from the stack 4 against the stop shoulder 54. When the feeder plate is in the last mentioned position,

the plunger cylinder 53 is in its cap clamping position. shown in Figure 3 of the drawings.

As soon as the tube 1 is started in upward movement from the capping position, shown in Figure 3, the cap in contact with stop 54 pivots about the edge of the seat 55 so that its rearward edge slides along the sloping face 56 of the plunger 53. The lower face of the cap strikes the top edge of the lug 50 and topples into the inclined position shown in Figure 3. As the tube 1 continues its upward movement, the can slides down the inclined wall of the cylinder 46 and under the cross rod 51 to keep the cap from tumbling over in the cylinder with printed side down. The caps are thus fed automatically by the raising and lowering of the tube 1 and the parts carried thereby.

In operating this device, it is found preferable to let the tube 1 and the parts carried thereby fall freely toward the cylinder 46, as soon as the latter is located over a bottle neck. The jarring movement resulting from the free descent of tube 1 shakes the caps from their seat against stop 54 onto the inclined forward face of the capping cylinder 46, whence they slide into position under the rod 51.

While we have described our invention as embodied in concrete form and as operating in a specific manner in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, it should be understood that we do not limit our invention thereto, since various modifications thereof will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of our invention, the scope of which is set forth in the annexed claims.

What we claim is:

1. A bottle capper comprising a tube for holding a stack of-disks, a cylindrical disk support connected to said tube to slide axially toward and from the bottom thereof, means operated by the sliding movements of said support toward and from the bottom of said tube for transferring disks one at a time from said stack to said support, and means on said support to prevent overturning of the disks during their passage from the tube to the support. i

2. A bottle capper comprising a tube for holding a cylindrical carton of disks, a solid bottom extending across one end of said tube, a cylindrical plunger projecting from said bottom coaxially with said tube, a cylindrical disk support connected to said tube to slide as a sleeve over said plunger, means operated by the relative sliding movements of said tube and disk support for transferring disks one at a time from said tube and under the free end of the plunger onto said support and a rodextending across said support to prevent inversion of the disks during their movement on to said support, said plunger being provided with a slot to receive said rod.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signa- EDWARD MANNING. ROY A. MANNING.

- tures. 

